Provincial cutbacks hit NPCA’s core services
Provincial cuts will mean the municipalities will have to cover lost funding next year for conservation authorities, says NPCA’s chief administrative officer.
Gayle Wood said the province is cutting transfer payments to Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority by almost half, from $174,900 last year. The transfer payments are directed to the conservation authorities’ core mandates.
The Progressive Conservatives under Premier Doug Ford announced the cutbacks last week in the provincial budget.
Wood said Niagara’s conservation authority will be able “accommodate” the cuts this year through staffing gaps and efficiencies.
“We all know that it means they want the municipalities to pick up that responsibility, and that makes budgeting for 2020 extremely challenging,” she said at a board meeting Wednesday.
Wood said there are already restrictions on conservation authorities and where can spend transfer payments.
“We can’t spend it on lands,” she said. “We can’t spend it on corporate services. We must spend it on the delivery of our core mandate, which is floodplain management, comments under the Planning Act and our regulations.”
Wood said the provincewide cuts are part of a long-term trend concerning conservation authorities.
She said in the 1950s,
’60s and ’70s conservation authorities used to get 50 cents on the dollar for their entire program from the province of Ontario.
In 1996, the provincial government eliminated all their capital budgeting.
Wood said Conservation Ontario, a non-profit association that represents Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities, is responding to the province about the cutback.
“We don’t think we will be overly successful in getting any money back, but the province wants us to deliver on what they call our core mandate, which is floodplain management and regulations, and that’s the exact pot of money they are reducing.”
Wood said NPCA will receive $90,000 in transfers from the province. She also noted the cut comes mid-year — after NPCA had already set its budget.
“This is another downloading,” said Hamilton NPCA board member Brenda Johnson. “They have been doing this for 20 years. We have a Band-Aid solution, and that is good to know, but it is just that, a Band-Aid solution.
“I appreciate what Conservation Ontario is doing, but I also believe this board should be sending a letter to each of our municipalities asking for endorsement … and through AMO (Association of Municipalities Ontario) directly to the minister.”
Before the reduction in transfers, Conservation Ontario said a total of $7.4 million in provincial funding was shared across the 36 conservation authorities in transfer payments.
“The impacts of these reductions will vary from CA to CA, however, they will all be felt immediately, particularly in smaller and more rural conservation authorities,” said Kim Gavine, general manager of Conservation Ontario.
Gavine added that cuts to natural hazards funding is particularly problematic because — like everywhere else — Ontario is experiencing stronger and more frequent flood events as a result of climate change impacts.”
She said conservation authorities have a variety of responsibilities for flood management in Ontario including forecasting flooding and issuing warnings, monitoring stream flows, floodplain mapping and regulating development activities in floodplains.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry said the government is in the process of updating the Conservation Authorities Act as part of an overall effort to make government spending more effective and efficient.